Tag Archives: Weekly Goals

Just trucking along. It’s midway through March and I’m wondering, currently, why I’m shivering so much and it’s just miserable cold outside (at least, today it is). I’m definitely eager for it to be truly spring, instead of a random nice day here and there, and then I’m back to putting on a ton of different layers when I get off at midnight every night.

But, enough complaining about the weather. Let’s see how things went last week.

Writing
Long-Term Goal: Write two new books and edit two books. Enter the query trenches.

Last Week’s Goal: Write 6x. Continue meeting word count.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. It’s crazy to think that I’m at 60,000 words and I’m only 20,000 away from reaching my minimum word count goal. I love that I’ve met my word count goal every day that I’ve written in March (!!) so far and I can see the end in sight, even if it’s going to take me a little bit more to get there. Really excited to see where these scenes go, though, and how these ideas come to life on the page.

Weekly Goal: Write 6x. Continue meeting word count.

ReadingLong-Term Goal: Read every day, finishing up some old series and keeping up with new ones.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Not only did I finish Blood of Assassins, but I also finished an ARC of a book called The Hollow Tree last week. It was a good reading week.

Weekly Goal: Read Age of Myth. Write review. Go by library.

FitnessLong-Term Goal: Continue living a healthy lifestyle and shaping a body I love and am proud of.

Last Week’s Goal: Workout 4x, log food honestly and figure out exactly how I want to try and balance cardio and strength training.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Worked out 4x, though I didn’t do as much cardio as I wanted to, thanks to the colder week last week. I also haven’t figured out how to balance both strength training and cardio, because I haven’t had a week warm enough to try. (*sigh* See why I started off this post complaining about the weather?) I also ate like shit yesterday and ate way too much and have felt pretty bad about it since then, so I really got to do better eating only when I’m hungry on the weekends and not just eating like shit.

Weekly Goal: Workout 5x, log food honestly and don’t eat like a fool on the weekend.

FinancialLong-Term Goal: Learn to have a healthy relationship with money and build my savings.

Weekly Goal: Check out different credit cards and potentially apply for one.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I did check out some credit cards and talked to my Mom about it, so I have some ideas in mind. Will prolly apply for one here soon.

Weekly Goal: Stay frugal and start saving to move in August.

SpiritualLong-Term Goal: Reconnect with God and grow personally to live more like Jesus.

Last Week’s Goal: Continue praying. Find devotional book to use with Mom.

Status: Negative, Commander. Didn’t pray very much or find a devotional we wanted to do.

Weekly Goal: Pray.

Carpe DiemLong-Term Goal: Find a reason to smile every day and something to get excited about weekly.

Last Week’s Goal: Get stoked about shopping day with Mom on Saturday.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. And it was awesome.

Weekly Goal: Have a blast in St. Louis and enjoy the three day weekend. But also, find ways to enjoy every day of the work week, too (including celebrating my Mom’s birthday!).This week, same focus as usual: writing and working out are my main two goals. But I also want to work on some mental health stuff. I’m pretty happy and things are pretty great, but I find myself wanting to be lazy or just get frustrated that I have to work, which isn’t exactly the healthiest mindset to be in. Sure, work isn’t always the most fun, but it’s also necessary and important, so instead of being bummed that I have to work, why not get stoked about how productive I an be or how many people I can help out? So that’s going to be a focus this week, too.

Last week was a pretty good week, all things considered. Productive, wonderful weather that I’m already missing, as it’s predicted to drop a little bit once again this week, enjoyable and only a few little spurts of random negative emotion, here and there. I still need to work on maintaining a more happy mindset and living in the moment, but overall, I’m pretty stoked with life and where I’m at, and with all the promise the future still holds for me.

Writing
Long-Term Goal: Write two new books and edit two books. Enter the query trenches.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I’m really stoked to already be at 45,000 words. And I’m about to get into the heart of the story, I think, and really start picking up the pace and the action, so I’m pretty darn stoked about that, too. Hoping the increase in action makes meeting those word count goals a little easier, for the second month working on this story!

Weekly Goal: Write 6x. Continue meeting word count.

ReadingLong-Term Goal: Read every day, finishing up some old series and keeping up with new ones.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Gosh, Kings of the Wyld was such a fantastic book, I had a blast writing that review. I’m about a third of the way through Blood of Assassins and I’m excited to see where this book is headed!

Weekly Goal: Finish Blood of Assassins. Write review. Start new book.

FitnessLong-Term Goal: Continue living a healthy lifestyle and shaping a body I love and am proud of.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I walked almost 15 miles last week, which was fantastic. I also logged my food honestly and finally resisted to have doughnuts this morning during DnD, so I’m off to a good start, this week!

Weekly Goal: Workout 4x, log food honestly and figure out exactly how I want to try and balance cardio and strength training.

FinancialLong-Term Goal: Learn to have a healthy relationship with money and build my savings.

Weekly Goal: Pay bills, pay off phone and put money into savings.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. It was a really sad feeling, to get paid and get my tax return all within a span of a few days, only to see all that money disappear thanks to bills and paying off a loan. But, instead, I should be thankful that money was there in the first place and I’ve been able to keep up my plan of putting $100 into savings every month so far, including March already, so I’m pretty stoked about that.

Weekly Goal: Check out different credit cards and potentially apply for one.

SpiritualLong-Term Goal: Reconnect with God and grow personally to live more like Jesus.

Last Week’s Goal: Pray.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I do still need to work on this, but I did pray at least once last week that I thought was actually a really good…prayer session, I guess you could call it. I felt like I talked with God honestly and openly, with only minimal distractions, so that was really nice.

Weekly Goal: Continue praying. Find devotional book to use with Mom.

Carpe DiemLong-Term Goal: Find a reason to smile every day and something to get excited about weekly.

Last Week’s Goal: Smile every day.

Status: Affirmative, Commander.

Weekly Goal: Get stoked about shopping day with Mom on Saturday.Going to continue working on book two in the Artemis quintet, as my goal is to reach 80,000 words by the end of this month. It’s going to be a challenge, but if I keep up with what I’ve been doing so far, I think it’s totally doable. I’m also hoping to really start adhering to a schedule, working out wise, where I start getting up on time in the mornings and get to work straight away, instead of being sluggish and sleeping in. I also want to try and make something different to eat for dinner this week, instead of my usual fare, and try to do my hair everyday.

I’m hoping, with starting out each morning with working out and doing my hair each day, I can start the day off right and continue feeling confident and productive throughout the rest of the day.

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind. With a bunch of ice hitting us throughout the week, it was a weird week, because I didn’t have to go into work for two days. So instead, I got to spend a lot of quality time with my PS4 alongside my boyfriend and that was really nice. Plus, went to a concert that I had a blast at, got to see my family (even if it was only for a small amount of time), watched my ‘Hawks win 14 CONSECUTIVE BIG TWELVE TITLES, had two really fun DnD sessions and got half of my sleeve filled it (and man, is my arm sore).

And that was just the fun stuff.

Here’s how the goals went:

Writing
Long-Term Goal: Write two new books and edit two books. Enter the query trenches.

Last Week’s Goal: Write 6x. Continue meeting word count.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I only wrote five times, instead of six, but honestly? Five times is pretty freakin’ great. A few of those sessions, I was checking every 300 words to see if I’d met my word count for that day yet (in other words, it was grueling to do so). Other days, I flew past it, writing an additional 1,000+ words. Despite the up and down of how writing feels each day, I love that I’m keeping up with it consistently and putting it before practically everything else. Plus, I came up with a scene that is going to make the story much more exciting, if a little more difficult for my characters. This is always a good thing.

ReadingLong-Term Goal: Read every day, finishing up some old series and keeping up with new ones.

Last Week’s Goal: Finish Kings of the Wyld. Write review. Read every day

Status: Negative, Commander. I’m a little over halfway done with this book and I’m still loving it. A few snow days last week, however, had me spending a lot more time with my PS4, instead of reading. But I’m okay with that.

FinancialLong-Term Goal: Learn to have a healthy relationship with money and build my savings.

Weekly Goal: Stay on budget and put some more money into savings.

Status: Negative, Commander. I didn’t put any money into savings and spent a little more last week than I usually do, thanks to the concert and a random GameStop sale.

Weekly Goal: Pay bills, pay off phone and put money into savings.

SpiritualLong-Term Goal: Reconnect with God and grow personally to live more like Jesus.

Last Week’s Goal: Pray each night

Status: Negative, Commander. Still really need to work on this.

Weekly Goal:. Pray.

Carpe DiemLong-Term Goal: Find a reason to smile every day and something to get excited about weekly.

Last Week’s Goal: Smile every day at work.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Considering we had two snow days last week, this wasn’t too hard to do.

Weekly Goal: Smile every day.This week, after receiving a rejection over my manuscript I was really bummed to get, I’m going to really focus on continuing to write the sequel, if for no other reason than because I love it and I want to find out what happens next. I might also work out a little less, since my arm is healing, thanks to the new ink, and my tattoos always need a little extra care/love when they are healing, but I’m hoping, if the weather stays above freezing, to go on some walks and still stay active, even if I’m not working up too much of a sweat.

Otherwise, it feels like the first week in a while that I haven’t had something come up, so I’m actually working a full work week. It feels weird, but I’m excited for March and everything it has in store!

Last week was a pretty awesome week! Stayed on top of all my writing goals, ate well and worked out consistently, plus had a day that broke 60 degrees, so managed to even workout outside and enjoy the beautiful weather, as well.

I started my period in the middle of last week, however, and it hit hard over the weekend, especially emotionally. I’ve either been sad (to the point of crying) or angry, for no apparent reason (and honestly, it’s just annoying). I definitely want to work on being happier, this week, and not letting my emotions gets the best of me, hormonal imbalance or otherwise.

Writing
Long-Term Goal: Write two new books and edit two books. Enter the query trenches.

Last Week’s Goal: Write 5x. Continue meeting word count.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I did manage to write 5x last week, which I’m really stoked about. A couple sessions were a bit harder than others and one session, I did fall short of my writing goal for that day, but I am still ahead slightly on my overall word count goal, so for that, I’m pretty grateful. I’m excited for a couple of scenes that I should write this week and to have already hit 20,000 words, so I’m stoked to continue that process and continue writing this story.

Weekly Goal: Write 6x. Continue meeting word count.

ReadingLong-Term Goal: Read every day, finishing up some old series and keeping up with new ones.

Last Week’s Goal: Finish Embers of War. Write review to come out on the 20th. Start new book!

Status: Affirmative, Commander.

Weekly Goal: Finish Kings of the Wyld. Write review. Read every day.

FitnessLong-Term Goal: Continue living a healthy lifestyle and shaping a body I love and am proud of.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I didn’t check out Rock Chalk Park, but I did work out 4x (including a four mile walk that was ridiculously heavenly, even if I was also ridiculously sore afterwards). I also logged my food accurately and honestly (and consistently) and only had one bad day last week, eating wise, but I blame my period, 100%.

Weekly Goal: Workout 4x. Keep up good work!

FinancialLong-Term Goal: Learn to have a healthy relationship with money and build my savings.

Weekly Goal: Stay frugal. Reevaluate finances

Status: Negative, Commander. I didn’t look at my finances like I planned, but I did stay frugal, so sorta like a half win/half lose situation.

Weekly Goal: Stay on budget and put some more money into savings.

SpiritualLong-Term Goal: Reconnect with God and grow personally to live more like Jesus.

Last Week’s Goal: Actively work on lessening mental tangents during prayer.

Status: Negative, Commander. Still really need to work on this.

Weekly Goal: Pray each night.

Carpe DiemLong-Term Goal: Find a reason to smile every day and something to get excited about weekly.

Last Week’s Goal: Have way too much fun on Valentine’s Day. ❤

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Valentine’s Day was positively wonderful. This week, I get to meet my parents for lunch and am (starting) to get my sleeve filled in, color wise, so it’s a pretty busy weekend on top of usual DnD shenanigans.

Weekly Goal: Smile every day at work.

So, like I mentioned above, definitely going to focus on smiling a lot more and shoving down the wayward emotions, spawned from anxiety, depression or just my period, and instead focusing on all the good that is going on in my life–and I have a lot of it, right now.

Also working on really honing my routine, including getting up at 9:30am instead of 10:30am (or 11am…), working out as soon as I get up and doing my hair each day (because I definitely feel more put together and confident when my hair is done). Then, I’m hoping to even try a new recipe this week or at least make something a little bit different to eat, instead of my usual go-to meals. And, of course, keep up with writing and keeping it a priority.

I can see progress happening and habits forming. No time–or plans–to relent now. I’ve got dreams to achieve.

Last week was a lot of, “Hey, how are you feeling?” or “Welcome back to the land of the living,” which was both sweet and got old really quickly really fast. Yet it was really nice to get back into some sort of routine with work, writing and working out. I really needed that. The fact that I was able to meet my writing goals and eat a lot better (until the weekend) were some boosts my confidence and belief in myself definitely needed. Knowing that I can provides some great forward momentum, which is exactly what I plan to do.

Writing
Long-Term Goal: Write two new books and edit two books. Enter the query trenches.

Last Week’s Goal: Write 4x. Meet (or exceed) word count.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. So, apparently writing roughly 1,900 words four times a week (and then another 1,000 on Fridays, since I put writing 5x a week as my writing goal on WriteTrack) is a lot harder than I thought. I’m going to write a blog post about it, hopefully this week, but I’m really proud that I not only wrote four times last week, but with today’s writing, I’m 2,000 words ahead of schedule, which gives me a day’s wiggle room. And that’s awesome.

Weekly Goal: Write 5x. Continue meeting word count.

ReadingLong-Term Goal: Read every day, finishing up some old series and keeping up with new ones.

Weekly Goal: Finish Embers of War. Write review to come out on the 20th. Start new book!

FitnessLong-Term Goal: Continue living a healthy lifestyle and shaping a body I love and am proud of.

Last Week’s Goal: Get fully healthy. Get well, but be forgiving if your body isn’t ready to work out, yet.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I actually managed to work out twice last week and ate really well, plus logged my food, resulting in losing a pound! Then, Saturday, I ate like shit, so…we’re getting there. Definitely need to continue working on being more forgiving and less manic about seeing progress in this and instead, focus on making it a lifestyle I enjoy.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Not only did I make my tax appointment, but I actually got to go last week and it was really lovely to see my Aunt and catch up with her. I also put in money to savings for both January and February, so I’m really stoked about that (but as I’m already seeing some things on the horizon that are probably going to dip into that, I’m now nervous, but oh is the life of constant financial anxiety).

Weekly Goal: Stay frugal. Reevaluate finances.

SpiritualLong-Term Goal: Reconnect with God and grow personally to live more like Jesus.

Last Week’s Goal: Focus.on.prayer.

Status: Negative, Commander. I hardly prayed last week. Really need to change that. But, I did talk with my Mom about getting devotionals (since apparently a problem with shipping caused us to never get ours), so hopefully we’ll make some forward progress on that!

Weekly Goal: Actively work on lessening mental tangents during prayer.

Carpe DiemLong-Term Goal: Find a reason to smile every day and something to get excited about weekly.

Last Week’s Goal: Get excited to get back into the routine and being back amongst the living. Plus, hair appointment Saturday!

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Lots of reasons to smile, last week. Getting my hair done was awesome (especially since I got it done with my Mom, sister and brother). Had a fun game night, met my Aunt for lunch and generally just had a pretty awesome week.

Weekly Goal: Have way too much fun on Valentine’s Day. ❤

I’m not going to lie: this week, I’m most excited about Valentine’s Day, since it’s the first time I’m celebrating it as a holiday and not as Single Awareness Day, like I have the previous 25 years. And my boyfriend and I are kinda going all out and I’m really freakin’ stoked about that, too. But on top of that, it’s continuing the writing grind, looking into a potentially free (!!) gym membership, trying to finish up editing a friend’s book and keeping my fitness and health in check as we (hopefully) start making the turn towards some more consistently warmer weather.

Wishing you good vibes, positive thoughts and marks off your To-Do list!

Thanks to the flu, I not only missed posting anything for Week Five, but my goals below–which were from Week Four, since I didn’t make any new ones–were far from accomplished, especially the main one I had for that week: to start writing the second book in the Artemis Smith quintet. But with as sick as I got, I’m not beating myself up for not accomplishing anything (I’m just proud I didn’t end up in the hospital). I’m still recovering–this cough is nasty and persistent–so the goals for the upcoming week are a little lower intensity/lower key than what I’d like, but after a sickness like that, you can’t rush the recovery, either, or you’ll be right back to where you were.

And I have no desire to do that again.

Writing
Long-Term Goal: Write two new books and edit two books. Enter the query trenches.

Status: Negative, Commander. I ended up falling behind by almost two weeks. I did manage to write the first page last night (*squee*) and adjusting my Write Track goal, I only increased my daily word count goal by a couple hundred of words each day, going from roughly 1,500 to roughly 1,900 per day, in order to still meet my deadline on the 31st of March. So still totally doable.

Weekly Goal: Write 4x. Meet (or exceed) word count.

ReadingLong-Term Goal: Read every day, finishing up some old series and keeping up with new ones.

Last Week’s Goal: Finish The Guns Above. Write review.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Plus, wrote another review and start reading another novel that is BAMF.

Weekly Goal: Finish Times Shards. Write review. Start another novel.

FitnessLong-Term Goal: Continue living a healthy lifestyle and shaping a body I love and am proud of.

Last Week’s Goal: Indoor routine 4x. Log food.

Status: Negative, Commander. Yeah, probably no surprise that this one didn’t get accomplished. The weather seems to be improving slightly, but this week it’s supposed to snow, so it doesn’t look I’ll be getting outside to do anything any time soon. But considering my body is still regaining its strength, my main focus will be to eat well and just slowly work my way back into it.

Weekly Goal: Get fully healthy. Get well, but be forgiving if your body isn’t ready to work out, yet.

FinancialLong-Term Goal: Learn to have a healthy relationship with money and build my savings.

Weekly Goal: FRUGAL.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. One plus of being bedridden is you can’t really spend money if you can’t move, so…

SpiritualLong-Term Goal: Reconnect with God and grow personally to live more like Jesus.

Last Week’s Goal: Actively work on lessening mental tangents during prayer.

Status: Negative, Commander. I actually didn’t pray at all last week. My mind was sorta out of it.

Weekly Goal: Focus.on.prayer.

Carpe DiemLong-Term Goal: Find a reason to smile every day and something to get excited about weekly.

Last Week’s Goal: Get stoked for family day on Saturday and find a reason to smile, every day.

Status: Negative, Commander. I dunno if it’s ironic or not, that I had “find a reason to smile, every day” and then I ended up getting sick for eight days. I am bummed that I missed a lot during that time, including two DnD sessions and a family day I was really looking for to. But, luckily, things can be rescheduled and I’m ready to get back to it.

Weekly Goal: Get excited to get back into the routine and being back amongst the living. Plus, hair appointment Saturday!So, it was a rough end for January, but that’s okay. Ready to make February that much better, refocusing on my goals, concentrating on my health and putting writing to the forefront.

Last week was a pretty decent week–looking at everything below, it was actually better than that. I finalized some details writing wise, read a good book, got caught up on reviews and blogging and enjoyed seeing some people I normally don’t get to see. I’ve just been in this weird funk, emotionally, where I get sad randomly and it becomes hard to shake, for a bit. I’m not really sure why I’m feeling that way and I’m hoping to try and break out of that funk here soon, because life is just too wonderful to be randomly sad.

So this week, while I still want to accomplish these goals, my main goal will be this: to smile and chase happiness.

Writing Long-Term Goal: Write two new books and edit two books. Enter the query trenches.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I got the rest of the characters mapped out and, I have to say, they are going to be quite the cast. I can already tell they are going to be a challenge to write, yet at the same time, I’m really excited to get to know these characters more and continue advancing Artemis’s story. I didn’t outline at all and I plan to try and finish up a rough outline tonight, but even if that doesn’t happen, tomorrow, we begin writing.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Yeah, I’m really, really enjoying making reading a priority again. I missed it a lot and I’ve loved reading every day again.

Weekly Goal: Finish The Guns Above. Write review.

FitnessLong-Term Goal: Continue living a healthy lifestyle and shaping a body I love and am proud of.

Last Week’s Goal: Indoor routine 3x. Log food.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. I got in 3 indoor workouts, including adding in another “sheet” to the workout routine that I put together (and those abs workouts are killer). Some parts are definitely harder than others and it takes me roughly 30 minutes to complete, which isn’t bad at all. And I work up a sweat, which I miss. Hoping to keep this routine up and add it on top of running when the weather allows and stop beating myself up when I don’t eat as well as I’d like. This isn’t a race. Stop panicking.

Weekly Goal: Indoor routine 4x. Log food.

FinancialLong-Term Goal: Learn to have a healthy relationship with money and build my savings.

Status: Negative, Commander. Still no money in savings (yet) and I’m anxiously waiting for all of my tax stuff to come into the mail so I can get that sorted. *sigh*

Weekly Goal: FRUGAL.

SpiritualLong-Term Goal: Reconnect with God and grow personally to live more like Jesus.

Last Week’s Goal: Pray every night without losing focus (too much).

Status: Negative, Commander. I try to pray every night, but I often find myself getting distracted and going on mental tangents that spawn from whatever topic I’m praying about. So I’d really like to focus on not doing that.

Weekly Goal: Actively work on lessening mental tangents during prayer.

Carpe DiemLong-Term Goal: Find a reason to smile every day and something to get excited about weekly.

Last Week’s Goal: Beat Horizon: Zero Dawn and prepare to have my mind blown. Have fun hanging out with Kylee (and hopefully my sister) on Saturday.

Status: Affirmative, Commander. Oooh, and that ending, too. Don’t regret immediately buying the DLC. It was great to see Kylee and Tanna, too, plus get caught up in the Avengers: Infinity War countdown with my man.

Weekly Goal: Get stoked for family day on Saturday and find a reason to smile, every day.

So, I got some goals this week. Starting a new book is both terrifying and so exciting, especially since I’ve had scenes and conversations popping into my head the entire past week, so obviously, my brain is ready to go (it’s just a matter of shutting out the doubt, now). Also want to try and get out of this funk that I’ve been in emotionally, because I don’t like just being, “Eh.”